Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Wolf and Delo

My parents were here for Ashby's baptism and stayed for about a week after that. The visit was as usual, too short. We had all kinds of plans, but weren't able to do as much as we wanted. My dad was sick for the majority of the visit, Ashby was sick too as were Roger and I. We still had fun and managed to cram some fun in with all the germs. We took the girls out of school one day so we could go to the zoo. It was the perfect day, not too busy and not too cold.

The polar bear exhibit is seriously so cool. You can see the polar bears from ground level, but they have this cool tunnel that you can go in as well. The bears were extremely playful and put on a good show. I could have stayed and watched them all day, but the kids wanted to see something else....

There was also a tunnel for shark viewing. Luke was digging it, can you tell?

This is the only picture I have as proof that indeed my mom was here. We had so much fun and were so sad to see them go.

When we were all feeling better, my parents, Luke and I drove out to the Flight 93 memorial. It's about 2 hours from here. A permanent memorial is being constructed, but what is there is truly powerful. Here's the plaque that hangs in the overlook area. The overlook area is where the media and most of the investigative crews set up in the days following 9/11. When Flight 93 struck the ground the plane was upside down and going over 500 mph. It immediately burst into flames and created a huge crater. A few days after, a crew back filled the crater and it became the permanent resting place for everyone on the flight. Only family members are allowed on the ground where the plane actually went down. The first phase of the memorial will be dedicated on September 11, 2011.

Here's the field as you can see it from the overlook. That's memorial construction going on in the right of the picture. If I read the plaque right the plane crashed in the field in the middle of this picture, where the little mound of dirt is. What really struck me about this site is that it is truly in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't have a street address. The passengers on Flight 93 were definitely heroes.